Meet Nephew Tiny Man

I forgot how incredibly tiring it is to have a baby. My sister is doing great taking care of Tiny Man, but she is clearly exhausted. The three of us slept in the guest room together; she was very worried TM would wake me up. Indeed, he did, multiple times. It didn't bother me much; I knew I will deal with it for only 3 nights, while she must do so daily...

I went with Dziadek Andrzej to Barnes Foundation, a museum housing "more than 3,000 masterpieces, including 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 16 Modigli­anis, and 7 Van Goghs, plus textiles, metalwork, decorative objects, African sculpture, Native American ceramics and jewelry, and Pennsylvania German furniture." The place is maddening: paintings, furniture, sculptures, and metalwork stacked from floor to ceiling, immensely crowded. My favorite piece was a painting by Charles Demuth titled "Piano Mover's Holiday". There was also a nude by Modigliani which was quite spectacular; I have never seen one done by him before.

Today, Dziadek and I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and we had SO MUCH fun. It was only my second time there, so I saw a lot of stuff I've never seen before. My favorite three paintings were three impressionist pieces all featuring white landscapes. This Pissaro took the cake; the website image isn't even close to the the real thing.

My brain is slowly thawing out; the last stretch of the semester really took its toll on me. I didn't really sleep more than 5 hours a night since last Friday because of all the things I had to finish for the classes I took and taught. I finished my final paper for one of the classes on Wednesday at 1:00, and left for Philly at 2:15. Ever since getting here, I am trying to relax, but I am not very good at relaxing. 

Can you see how flat is my writing? Not a single spark. I am definitely not myself...